Hilary Smith, Co-op member and Boycott Israel Network (BIN) agricultural trade campaign coordinator, was quoted by The Guardian as saying that the Co-op "has taken the lead internationally in this historic decision to hold corporations to account for complicity in Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights. We strongly urge other retailers to take similar action."

The Co-op has fallen over itself to announce that, no, they're not actually boycotting Israel, you understand. Just any Israeli companies that deal with produce from not just the West Bank, but any from over the Green Line. So that will include all the wines from the Golan Heights, and matzos and other religious goods baked or made in the Old City of Jerusalem but also all the produce that's exported from Gaza. And of course all the produce which Palestinian farmers in the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights produce.

You see, Palestinian Arab farmers are completely dependent on the high-tech logistics and technologies of the Israel-wide exporters like Agrexco, Mehadrin and all those other companies the Co-op's decided to boycott for the fast processing, refrigeration, air transport, EU certification and marketing. Without those companies exporting their produce to the UK, guess what? Those Palestinians will lose money hand over fist, if they're not driven completely out of business, by the loss of their currently very efficient Israeli exporters. There aren't any other local non-Israeli companies they can turn to. Try Jordan or Egypt? Not a chance.

Here's the viewpoint of a Gazan woman producer whose business and family was hit by the closing of the route to Europe via Agrexco after the Israelis shut the Keren Shalom checkpoint after an outburst of Hamas terrorist action.

Um Hajjar Al-Ghalayini, 46 years old, owns half an acre of sandy Gaza land that produces two tons of strawberries every season. Since her husband died two years ago, the crop is the sole means of support for her nine children, mother-in-law and widowed sister, so every one of the bright red berries counts.

Last year, she had no choice but to sell her produce to the local market. That filled the Gaza markets with fruits and vegetables to the benefit of consumers, but for growers like Um Hajjar it was a disaster. Her earnings dropped by more than half and the family had a tough year economically. This week, as Israel took another step in easing its economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, Um Hajjar delivered her strawberries to the Kerem Shalom checkpoint on the Israel-Gaza border, their first leg of a journey to the more profitable markets in Europe.

“Now I can say that things are getting back to normal, if not on the right track,” she told The Media Line.

Just last week in London, Livingstone declared himself against boycotts of Israeli goods and services at a meeting with Jewish Londoners. His Deputy Mayoral candidate running mate Val Shawcross proudly declared herself a member of the Co-operative Party.

The Co-operative Group is formally affiliated with the Co-operative Party which although nominally independent is an organization whose sole party political link is to the Labour Party. Co-operative Party election candidates stand for election as Labour candidates.

So, apart from Livingstone and Val Shawcross, there's a long list of 29 Co-operative Party MPs, who include many who are usually supportive of Israel and strongly opposed to boycotts. Those MPs include Louise Ellman, Luciana Berger, Stephen Twigg and Mike Gapes amongst others. And quite a few of them are London Assembly members, too, like Nicky Gavron and Murad Qureshi.

Are they in favour of boycotting the produce of Palestinian farmers? Do they think kosher wines from the Golan Heights and matzos baked in the Old City of Jerusalem should be boycotted?

Will the Labour London Assembly members be pressing for Palestinian and Israeli produce exported by Agrexco, Mehadrin and the other companies fingered by the Co-op to be banned from the GLA's premises?

"We will not finance any organisation that advocates discrimination and incitement to hatred."

The right to freedom of speech underpins the values of a democratic society and individuals and organisations should be free to express their views or beliefs. However, 99% of customers who participated in the review supported the bank's decision to withhold finance from those extremist organisations that advocate not only discrimination but hatred.

Can Livingstone, Val Shawcross and all those Co-op MPs and London Assembly members let us know whether they support the Viva Palestina project of collecting funds which are given to Hamas regime officials? Can they also explain to us how they are satisfied that the Co-op Bank is not contravening its own policies in allowing itself to be used to collect and pass wads of used banknotes to and through Hamas, which has a stellar record of suppressing free speech and inciting hatred of Jews and Israel, not least through its own Charter?

If they think the money is just going to charitable work and is untouched by the Hamas hate machine, what are the processes they have used to monitor that?

Oh, and by the way, that's bankers in the spotlight again, isn't it? Only somehow, I can't quite see Ed Miliband getting up on his hind legs to fulminate about this at Prime Minister's Question Time, can you?

Comments

Doubtless the Palestnians would have plenty more land to grow their strawberries on if Jewish settlers would refrain from stealing it.

http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/photos/maps/landloss.html

I don't personally boycott 'Israeli' produce, but I can see right through this faux concern for the Gazan farmer. The Israelis will say, with crocodile tears streaming from their eyes, "Look what you are doing to the poor Palestinian families!", whilst continuing to support the polciy of collective punishment that has been imposed on the people of Gaza for as long as I can remember. And I see the example used to highlight the perceived plight of Palestinian producers under a boycott of Israeli export companies is... the economic misery caused by the Israeli-imposed blockade on Gaza!

"There aren't any other local non-Israeli companies they can turn to."

Perhaps there would be if the Israelis didn't keep them in an overcrowded, open prison where 21,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed by the IDF during their last major assault on Gaza. Ater all, The Jordanians are able to export, and so are the Egyptians, but not so the Palestinians. I wonder why.

Duh.. Gaza has no settlers in it whatsoever. All the Israeli settlements in it were dismantled when the Israelis withdrew in 2006.

Collective punishment? Open prison? Don't you know that Gaza has a border with Egypt too? Would Britain have an open border with a regime that was dedicated to destroying it, regularly launched rockets into its territory etc.

The concern I quoted was by a Palestinian Arab farmer for herself.

There's also the West Bank, where there are vast tracts of uncultivated land. You should look around the internet a little more for the other side of the story. Even try reading some serious historical research that doesn't feed your own propaganda story.

Where's your evidence that Palestinian land has been "stolen"? Land ownership before, during and after the British Mandate did not make those who worked the land owners of it, nor was did it belong to a Palestinian state, because none has ever existed.

There are malls and luxury hotels and supermarkets and shops bursting with produce in Gaza, and it's not a joke that Ramallah is called the Paris of the West Bank. It doesn't quite fit your myth of the poor impoverished Palestinians imprisoned in their misery, does it though? All those AK47s and rockets they're so fond of toting don't come cheap.

The Palestinian Authority has one of the largest civil authority payrolls in relation to the total population in the world. That's the wonderful impact of all the billiions that are channelled to them via US and EU funds.

But even so, the West Bank, like Israel, is achieving great economic growth rate which this country would give its eye teeth to have. And almost everyone of those burgeoning enterprises involves some sort of partnership and mutual benefit with Israeli enterprises. But it doesn't quite fit your rage and misery mythology, does it?

I have visited the DRC, Afghanistan and Ethiopia, and in all of them I have seen luxury shopping malls. Every country has its rich, who tend to spend their money in luxury shopping malls. The "luxury shopping mall" meme can be found all over the internet and is used as part of a spurious attempt by Zionists to deny the impoverishment and suffering of the Gazans at the hands of the Israelis. It is usually accompanied by some photos of luxury food items, which purport to show how well-fed and happy your average Gazan is with his lot. Of course, photographs also show there were swimming pools at Auschwitz, but it doesn't follow that Auschwitz was operated as something akin to a Butlin's Holiday camp. I am surprised that for someone who so readily accuses others of believing one-sided, internet-based propaganda, you have yourself fallen hook, line and sinker for the old "luxury shopping mall" routine.

All those AK47s and rockets they're so fond of toting don't come cheap. The Palestinian Authority has one of the largest civil authority payrolls in relation to the total population in the world. That's the wonderful impact of all the billions that are channelled to them via US and EU funds.

Awww, are these the rockets AK47s that killed 13 Israelis during Cast Lead, while the Israelis notched up 1,400 Palestinian dead? One has to at least make an effort to defend one's life and land, no matter how pathetic or futile that might seem against one of the most well-equipped armed forces on earth.

I shouldn't think Israel's undeclared stockpile of nuclear weapons - reputedly larger than Great Britain's - comes cheap either, but then what the heck when you can get billions of dollars off the American taxpayer as the self-proclaimed economic miracle of the Middle East! Hey, why not get the US to fight your wars for you and provoke another one with Iran on the basis of it trying to develop... a nuclear weapon!!

I'm not going to boycott Israeli products because it's not going to be long before Israel is wiped off the map anyway - but not "wiped off the map" in the sense you're thinking. I mean wiped off the map in the same way the Soviet Union was.

P.S. I recommend some serious historical research in the form of Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People (2008).

P.P.S. I used to be pro-Israel, but like a lot of people I did an about-turn after Cast Lead. Frankly, I should've known better in 2006 and a long time before.

“Forget all about the stories they’re selling you in the media about how we want to talk but [Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas] doesn’t, and so forth. I’m telling you, we’re not talking with the Palestinians because this government has no interest in talking with the Palestinians … I know from up close what is going on in that area.”